[a fool in paradise]

It happens every time. As I hand the test out to my middle school students, one of them will invariably look up, pencil at the ready, and ask, "Does spelling count?"

"What difference does it make?!!!"

[dsrtsage]

In most cases, I can accurately predict the age of any poster on the internet by evaluating their spelling and grammar alone. Well constructed sentences, good spelling and grammar are almost the exclusive domain of the ancients among us.